


With Unseeing Eyes

by phix27



Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-22
Updated: 2012-04-22
Packaged: 2017-11-04 02:29:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/388685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phix27/pseuds/phix27
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Annie came home, and, though she lived right next door, she still looked right though him.  As if he was still next to nothing.  But he wasn’t.</p>
            </blockquote>





	With Unseeing Eyes

He’d never had a home.  He never had a family, never had something to call his own, somewhere to stake his claim.  All he had was the sea.

And she, she had had everything.  She had a family, money, home.  She’d never had to work for anything in her life. 

They met when he was bare-footed and dressed only in a pair of ratty shorts.  She was in a brand-new dress.  He’d never seen anything prettier.  She didn’t even know he existed.

To her, he was nothing.  Less than nothing.  He was just this little vagabond, one who wasn’t serious about anything.  Making jokes like that would give him something in the world to call his own.  It was something much darker that did that.

Yeah, he won his Games.  How could he not?  He knew how to tough it, how to live without shelter.  That wasn’t a problem.  The real problem was killing people.  It turned out not to be a problem at all.

He thought she’d notice him.  Finally.  After all, because of the Capitol, he had everything she had now.  But it didn’t seem to matter.  Because the first time he saw her, she looked right through him as if he didn’t exist.

And then, in a twist that only fate could devise, she was reaped.  Finnick thought his heart stopped when he heard “Annie Cresta” called, and then it did stop when she got the pitiful score of 2. 

“How in the world do you live by the ocean and _not_ know how to kill something?” he asked in amazement.  She just glared and walked away.  His Annie had always been a spitfire. 

She mostly hid during the games, which was rather effective for her.  Not the way he would have done it, but then, he’d already proven that, hadn’t he?  And then the little boy that was with her got his head chopped off and though Finn winced in sympathy, Annie took it harder than most.  With his new skills that he learned in the Capitol, he saved her life with a flood, where she treaded water for two days to stay alive.  But he couldn’t save her mind.

Annie came home, and, though she lived right next door, she still looked right though him.  As if he was still next to nothing.  But he wasn’t.

 When he was home and not at the Capitol, doing his “duty”, he would go over and talk to her.  He’d talk for hours, until he lost his voice, but she never said a word.  He didn’t know when she’d speak, if she would, but he wouldn’t abandon her.  He couldn’t.

After the next year’s Games, in which she didn’t come along as mentor, he came home, weary and upset.  Both his tributes had lost.  He let himself into the house that had never really felt like a home and sat down on the couch, rubbing his hands over his face.  A knock came at his door and he almost didn’t answer.  Thank God he did.

It was Annie, looking ragged and not at all what most would call beautiful but she was, she _was_ because her eyes were clear and bright and looking at him.  “Finnick,” she breathed, and launched herself into his arms.  She clung to him like she’d never let him go.  He would be perfectly happy with that. 

They saw each other every day.  Finn would talk and Annie would stare blankly, but now, sometimes, her eyes would be clear and bright.  She’d smile at him and finally, finally, she saw him.  Out of all the things the Capitol gave him, Finnick thought this was the best gift he could ever have received.                                 


End file.
